SN: It’s been a long, cold winter—all my staple dramas are on hiatus, thanks to Sochi. On your recommendation, I turned to FOX’s “Almost Human” and Syfy’s “Helix”: reliable sandbags, stop-gap measures that shore us up against boredom. Just exactly what it says on the tin.

It’s hard to do TV horror; maybe there’s something about its rhythms of terror and catharsis that doesn’t mesh with hour-long serialized programming. The most well-known examples are long gone but enduringly buzzy, and even these can be tough going. When my sister and I tried to dive into the iconic and fetishistic “Twin Peaks,” the first pair of episodes was so emotionally exhausting that it turned back our best faith efforts. Should’ve checked it out on Hulu before getting her the DVDs for Christmas. Shouldn’t have watched it at night.

As if the heavens heard us and felt compelled to answer, Netflix released “House of Cards.” With a $100 million budget, a cast of bona fide movie stars and David Fincher directing, Netflix’s first original program immediately established itself as “serious” television — that is, when it wasn’t being called a very long feature film by its writer-showrunner, Beau Willimon.

SN: This week, we look at the first installments of “Last Resort,” which seems to aspire to be the next “LOST”: a massively popular hourlong network drama the likes of which we haven’t seen in a long time. “Last Resort” is about the crew of a Navy submarine armed with nuclear missiles and stealth technology: »

GC: We wanted to kick things off with the high-concept drama that’s brought J.J. Abrams back to a small screen near you: “Revolution.” (NB: he’s only the executive producer, but his fingerprints are all over it.) The premise ought to be compelling — the lights have gone out, and they’ll never come back on. The »